It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Rishi Sunak: How the US shaped Britain's new leader
Publishe
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Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty in California
By Natalie Sherman
BBC
Business reporter, New York
Rishi Sunak, the UK's new prime minister, points to his time in the US studying and working as a defining part of his life. So what are his American connections?
The 42-year-old has made the California chapter of his biography a key part of his public persona.
He frequently cites his time there in his 20s and early 30s to burnish his credentials as a business-savvy leader.
"I have lived and worked in California and I actually think it's one of the reasons that I would be good at this job," he told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg last month while running for the Conservative leadership.
"Because what I will bring to this job is a way of thinking that is different. When we think about growth and in a modern economy, how do you drive growth - you drive it through innovation. Because of my experience I know how to build that type of economy."
Here's a closer look at this period which had such an impact on him.
The 'power couple' on campus
Mr Sunak started his years in America at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business as a Fulbright Scholar, heading to Silicon Valley in 2004 as the internet boom was under way.
The programme, which admits roughly 400 students per year, has a reputation as the most exclusive business degree in the country.
Among the classes Mr Sunak took was "The Paths to Power", intended to help students understand power and how to wield it effectively.
He did not earn any particular academic distinctions and his professor in that class was unable to recollect him - understandably, given he taught 100 students a year.
But a more life-changing landmark in those early US years occurred when he met his wife, Akshata Murty, daughter of the founder of Indian tech firm Infosys.
Classmates at the time have told biographer Michael Ashcroft that they were a "power couple" on campus.
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Rishi Sunak wearing his Stanford sweater
Derrick Bolton, who was assistant dean of admissions from 2001-2016 and remains friendly with the couple, says Mr Sunak entered the programme "very self-assured".
"He knew from a young age that he wanted to make an impact on as many people as possible."
Earlier this summer the couple invited Mr Bolton to Downing Street for tea, where they lived in Mr Sunak's capacity as chancellor. They showed their visitor exhibits on former chancellors and served biscuits marking the Queen's Jubilee.
Mr Bolton, who attended their New York wedding celebration in 2009, said he was surprised they made the time.
"Despite the lofty titles and significant responsibility, they are the same two lovely people they were as students - open and kind and humble and remarkably self-effacing," he said. "They're very low-key, very chill."
Welcome to Santa Monica
After graduating, Mr Sunak took a lucrative job at the London-based hedge fund, TCI Fund Management.
Mr Sunak focused on the US, participating in the firm's bitter 2008 fight with the leaders of America's CSX freight railroad.
Lawyer Marc Weingarten, who worked closely with Mr Sunak at this point, said he stood out as a "sponge for information".
"He was all over it," he said. "They [Mr Sunak and his boss] had studied the industry and CSX in depth for months and their mastery of the industry and CSX was astonishing."
In 2009, in the wake of the financial crisis, top leaders at TCI left to start their own firm Theleme and took Mr Sunak with them.
He became part of a team of two based in Santa Monica, a beach-side city just outside of Los Angeles, and famous as the home of celebrities such as David Beckham and Christian Bale.
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Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica. where the Sunaks lived
He invested in companies such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and started to put down ties to the area, joining the board of local Boys & Girls Club, a charity which runs after-school programmes and other activities for needy children.
Aaron Young, who led the organisation at the time, says he was surprised to see Mr Sunak become prime minister but that his ambition was always evident.
"I think he always had aspirations," Mr Young said.
End of the California dream
Mr Sunak ultimately left the US, won a seat in the UK Parliament in 2015 and started his rapid ascent in British politics. But his California years have remained a frequent touchstone.
He has said he tried to introduce a "start-up" mentality while leading the Treasury Department, and credited Stanford for pushing him to shed "incremental" ways of thinking.
The years in the US also informed his decision to back Brexit, he told the BBC in 2019.
"The pace of change is just accelerating around the world - that was my experience being in California," he said. "My general broad view was given the pace of change... being independent and having the flexibility and nimbleness to react would be of enormous value to us."
Mr Sunak and his wife continue to maintain a flat in Santa Monica, which they regularly visit. But his ties to the US have at times caused an outcry.
This year, it emerged he had retained his Green Card, giving him the right to live and work in the US as a permanent resident. He returned it in October last year, ahead of his first American trip as a government minister.
The disclosure occurred around the time it was revealed his wife did not pay taxes as a UK resident.
The controversies have been used to raise questions about Mr Sunak's commitment to the country, despite his being born and raised in the UK, says Victoria Honeyman, professor of British politics at the University of Leeds.
"There are legitimate questions - if you are chancellor of the exchequer, should your wife have non-dom status? Should you own a green card? The problem is that it gets tied up with a lot of issues that are not necessarily valid," she says, adding: "I'm not sure a white politician would have to make those kinds of justifications to the same degree."
But such controversies are low-level compared to the economic and political crisis he now faces as prime minister, says Rod Dacombe, director of the Centre for British Politics and Government at King's College London.
"The thing that's going to make or break him isn't the kind of story that he presents or his ties to America.
"It's going to be how he deals with the almost impossible economic situation that he's going to face," he said. "Is it going to be fixed in time for the next election? Probably not."
Rishi Sunak might not be white, but he doesn't represent minority Brits like me
Opinion by Ahmed Twaij -
LONDON — Seventy-five years after Louis Mountbatten became the last Brit to rule over India, Rishi Sunak, a descendent of Indian immigrants, has walked into Downing Street as the first South Asian British prime minister. Although it is clearly a historic achievement, we should not be fooled into thinking this is a milestone for the U.K.’s minority communities. Sunak, and the ruling Conservative Party he now heads, have been no champions of minority communities like mine.
The third prime minister in only two months, Sunak has been handed the gauntlet of running a country in political and economic turmoil after the disastrous premierships of Liz Truss and Boris Johnson. With a background as a hedge fund manager, he comes into the job with a couple of years of experience as chancellor of the exchequer, the British equivalent of the secretary of the treasury, and several years as a member of Parliament. Before we praise him as the first British person of color to be leader of the nation, we must acknowledge his previous policies have hurt those very populations and his current ones are on track to do no better.
Sunak pointed to his pride in being an immigrant in such a country of opportunity in an early campaign video. It is a welcome sight, as a child of immigrants from Iraq — also a former British colony — to witness the landmark moment of having the first Hindu lead the country, especially after Johnson compared Muslim women to “bankrobbers” and “letterboxes.” But the achievement just underscores what I’ve always felt: Only by conforming to the demands of the pre-existing establishment will race or color no longer matter in Britain.
Just as the election of President Barack Obama was not a harbinger of a post-racial America, having a person of color sit in the highest political office in Britain does not mean we are witnessing the end of racism. In fact, such a politician can often exacerbate racism by implementing harsher policies against their own communities.
Historically, the British would generally select those most assimilating to white culture to be in positions of power above the other locals in their colonies. Often, those natives would then conduct heinous crimes, maybe in hopes of proving their worth to their white superiors. The Indian farmers complicit in the Bengali famine of 1943 are an example.
Today, Sunak and other Conservative Party MPs from minority backgrounds — perhaps in a misguided effort to seek wider validation and appeal to xenophobic followers within the party — have pushed for some of the most racist policies in recent history. While it’s a positive development to see representation in senior politics, this inclusivity should not be contingent on deracinating self-abnegation.
It is ironic that this is the same political party that unilaterally announced Britain is no longer structurally racist. The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, set up by the government in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, concluded in March 2021 that Britain is not “rigged against ethnic minorities.” But racial disparities in housing, health care, education, policing and others still exist, and denying them is problematic.
Since running for prime minister, Sunak has also vowed to implement a variety of anti-immigration policies that would see the “chance of a better future” he received not extended to others. One scheme called for those seeking asylum in the U.K. to be shipped off to Rwanda. “It is essential that anyone considering trying to sneak into Britain knows that their journey will end in Kigali, not King’s Cross,” Sunak said in a campaign video. In another inhumane plan, Sunak proposed accommodating migrants on ships as opposed to hotels while their asylum applications were processed.
The former chancellor of the exchequer’s economic policies have been no better. Brits from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds have at times been assessed as twice as likely to be among those hardest hit from the Conservative Party’s austerity measures. One report found that the policies have been assessed to have a “disproportionately negative impact” on “certain ethnic groups” by adding layers of taxes unequally affecting communities, a practice Sunak has shown no signs of reversing.
Of course, any cuts in public spending would not affect him. Sunak comes into 10 Downing St. as one of the richest people in Britain, with a net worth over £700 million. From not knowing how to use a credit card to struggling to pay at a gas pump, Sunak has shown his privilege throughout his career in public service. He once famously noted that he didn’t have “working-class friends“ and in another instance proudly announced diverting funds from “deprived urban areas” to more affluent parts of Britain. Yet it is people of color who make up much of the working-class population that Sunak avoids associating with.
Sunak’s policies show that what matters isn’t the skin color of the person in power, but the discrimination that he or she imposes. Although politicians like Sunak come from immigrant communities, their policies have been to those communities’ detriment. Only when politicians’ policies unashamedly support diverse populations can we truly celebrate these leaders’ own diversity.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Elon Musk closes Twitter deal and fires top executives
Musk’s $44 billion deal to acquire the social media company closed on Thursday night
On Oct. 27, Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter and began taking control of the social media company, firing several key executives.
SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk became Twitter’s owner late Thursday as his $44 billion deal to take over the company officially closed, marking a new era for one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.
As one of his first moves, he fired several top Twitter executives, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. One of those confirmed the deal was complete.
Chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety, were let go, according to the people. Sean Edgett, the company’s general counsel, was also pushed out, one of the people said. The top executives were hastily booted from the company’s San Francisco headquarters.
Musk’s moves late Thursday signal his intentions to firmly put his stamp on Twitter. Musk has publicly criticized the company’s outgoing management over product decisions and content moderation, as well as saying he would restore former president Donald Trump’s account.
Still, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Musk tweeted Thursday.
The closure of the deal ended a months-long, roller-coaster saga in which the billionaire — the world’s richest person — conducted a hostile takeover to buy Twitter at an inflated price, only to renege on the deal and then enter into a bitter legal battle with the social network.
But in recent days, Musk appeared resigned, and even enthusiastic, about his impending ownership. He showed up at the company’s offices unexpectedly Wednesday, carrying a sink to suggest that the message that he would become owner needed to “sink in,” according to a photo he posted to his more than 100 million Twitter followers.
He also plans to hold a companywide town hall Friday.
Neither Twitter nor the executives responded immediately to a request for comment.
The moves place the entrepreneur at the helm of one of the world’s most powerful communication platforms just days ahead of major elections in the United States and Brazil.
Musk, a transportation magnate who is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has offered some clues about what he would do when he took over Twitter — despite having no experience running a social media service.
He has suggested that he wants to loosen standards for the policing of harmful content such as misinformation and hate speech. He has also decried so-called censorship by social media companies.
Musk has repeatedly criticized the company and supported online attacks against individual executives. He has told potential investors and partners that he wants to execute a financial turnaround of the company by firing nearly 75 percent of its workforce and leaning into new business opportunities, including having people subscribe to exclusive content from popular influencers on the service.
Musk represents a different kind of owner than Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, or his now-rival Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, who generally try to stay politically neutral.
Over the course of his Twitter bid, Musk has at times styled himself as a moderate, but he also announced plans to vote for a Republican president in 2024. He has also weighed in on geopolitical conflicts between China and Taiwan and on the Ukraine war.
Inside Twitter, Musk’s arrival has been met with resentment and dismay — though his visit Wednesday left some hopeful. Those hopes were quickly dashed with the firings of longtime top executives, who had commanded the trust of existing staff.
The mood after Wednesday’s visit was “overall slightly more positive,” said one employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the company, adding “everyone’s ready to close this chapter and get to what comes next.”
Musk’s interest in owning Twitter became public in early April, when financial filings revealed he had taken a more than 9 percent stake in the company, making him its largest individual shareholder. A day later, Musk was announced as Twitter’s newest board appointee.
But his relationship with top executives quickly went south. Agrawal took exception to Musk’s April 9 tweet that asked “Is Twitter dying?” according to text message exchanges revealed in court documents. Musk laid out his plan in subsequent messages.
“I’m not joining the board,” he said in one. “This is a waste of time.”
Instead, he decided to take Twitter private and went to the board with an ultimatum: let him buy the company or he would start a rival social media service. He publicly launched a hostile takeover bid, pricing the deal at $54.20 — a possible wink to cannabis, raising some doubts about his sincerity.
Roughly two weeks later, Musk and Twitter struck a deal. In an onstage interview, Musk discussed his plans.
“Well I think it’s very important for there to be an inclusive arena free speech,” he said, echoing statements he has made over the past couple weeks. “Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square, so it’s just really important that people have ... both the reality and the perception that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law.”
But Twitter’s board — while angry at Musk’s tactics — was ultimately eager for the deal.
Twitter executives were predicting internally that the company would be far off track from meeting revenue targets in 2022, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, as well as people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe proceedings.
Twitter’s board was planning to make “drastic” cuts to staff and other services, including cutting roughly a quarter of the budget for third-party contractors who moderate content for the company, major cuts to infrastructure and data centers, and firing thousands of people to shave at least $700 million off labor costs, according to the interviews and documents. One of the leaders who signed off on the layoff notices was Edgett, who was fired Thursday.
Executives also believed that the company would not have easily found other buyers, according to one of the people.
Musk announced his acquisition three days before those layoffs were set to be announced.
He planned to buy the company with a combination of debt financing, co-investors and his own personal wealth, much of which is generated by his stake in Tesla. But the stock market started to collapse, affecting Tesla’s stock prices and Musk’s overall wealth.
Musk then started tweeting about Twitter’s tabulation of spam and bots, which he argued understated the true proportion of nonhuman accounts on the site.
He declared the deal “on hold” in an early morning tweet May 13. By early July, Musk backed out of the deal completely.
Twitter sued him days later, alleging breach of contract, sending the matter to the Delaware Court of Chancery. Musk’s chances were broadly viewed as grim, but his legal team latched on to a new strategy after The Post uncovered a whistleblower complaint that included explosive claims about Twitter’s business.
Musk shifted his opinion on whether to buy the company after a series of losses in court in matters related to scheduling and discovery, according to people close to Musk and his team who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive matters. A loss became a serious possibility if the matter went to trial, risking penalties beyond merely the buying cost. And the blows to Tesla’s stock and Musk’s net worth became a lingering concern.
Musk also took solace in his debt and equity commitments, which locked him in to the deal on favorable terms that might not be otherwise available, the people said. And he became excited by his plans for the site.
Earlier this month, the Delaware judge overseeing the case agreed to let Twitter and Musk resolve their dispute by Friday, or it would go trial.
The deal ultimately closed a day before the deadline.
Elon Musk Visits Twitter HQ With a Bathroom Sink as $44 Billion Deal Nears End
Tesla CEO Elon Musk looks up as he addresses guests at the Offshore Northern Seas 2022 (ONS) meeting in Stavanger, Norway, on Aug. 29, 2022. (Carina Johansen/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday posted a video of himself entering Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters with a bathroom sink amid reports he’s looking to complete the $44 billion acquisition of the social media firm by the end of this week.
“Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!” he wrote. Musk also changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit” on Wednesday.
The billionaire has until Friday to close the Twitter deal after a judge overseeing the Court of Chancery in Delaware gave Musk and Twitter until 5 p.m. ET on Oct. 28 to agree to a new deal or resume the case. Then, a trial would be scheduled for November, the judge ruled this month.
It comes as Twitter Chief Marketing Officer and Head of People Leslie Berland reportedly sent out an email to employees that Musk would come to the San Francisco headquarters.
“Elon is in the SF office this week meeting with folks, walking the halls, and continuing to dive into the important work you all do. If you’re in SF and see him around, say hi! For everyone else, this is just the beginning of many meetings and conversations with Elon, and you’ll all hear directly from him on Friday,” the message read, according to multiple news reports. Some Twitter employees were reportedly circulating an open letter protesting Musk’s acquisition of the social media firm. Time magazine published an alleged draft of the letter, although it’s not clear how many Twitter staffers signed it.
“Elon Musk’s plan to lay off 75 percent of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter’s ability to serve the public conversation,” said the letter, it was reported. “A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, shares of Twitter increased by about 1 percent to $53.35.
Earlier this month, Musk proposed to proceed with his original $44 billion bid, calling for an end to a lawsuit by the social media company that could have forced him to pay up, sending Twitter shares 24 percent higher at the time
“Wall Street is motivated to curry favor with Musk,” said Jason Benowitz, senior portfolio manager at The Roosevelt Investment Group LLC.
He added: “Elon Musk leads significant businesses including Tesla, SpaceX, and soon, Twitter … that may require substantial capital raises in the future. If SpaceX were to one day have an initial public offering it would be a flagship deal for the investment banking industry.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
Pope urges priests and nuns to delete porn from their phones SAME GOES FOR YOU OTHER FOLKS TOO
Pope Francis warned priests and nuns against watching pornography online and urged them to delete it from their phones to avoid falling into temptation.
The 85-year-old pontiff told a Vatican session that porn on the internet was “a vice that so many people have … even priests and nuns,” in response to questions about using digital and social media responsibly.
“The devil enters from there. … It weakens the priestly heart,” he told seminarians and priests studying in Rome this week in remarks published by the Vatican on Wednesday.
“Dear brothers, pay attention to this,” he said. “And if you can delete this from your mobile phone, delete it, so you won’t have the temptation in hand.”
The head of the Roman Catholic Church recounted that he had once received a mobile phone when he became a bishop, which he used to make a single call to his sister and immediately returned.
“It is not my world, but you must use it,” Francis said in comments about the benefits and risks of the internet. He asked his listeners to excuse him for mentioning porn but described it as “a reality.
“I will not say raise your hand if you have had at least one experience of this,” he added, asking them to reflect on it personally.
During his pontificate, Francis’s more outspoken — and at times less conservative — overtones than his predecessors, including his invitation of LGBT advocates to the Vatican, have drawn global attention and pushback from within the church.
In his nine-year tenure, he has issued apologies at several points, notably for sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Among them was a 2018 letter to Chilean bishops, in which he apologized for what he described as his own errors in handling a sex-abuse scandal. That year, the church was shaken by accusations that Francis knew and covered up the alleged sexual misconduct of an American cardinal, The Washington Post reported.
In 2020, the Vatican said it would look into how the pope’s official Instagram account appeared to have liked a Brazilian model’s photo, in an incident that she quipped would help get her into heaven. The pope’s Instagram account, managed by a team under the username franciscus, has 8.9 million followers.
While he has been healthy during much of his papacy, recent medical issues have raised questions about whether Francis could retire, and he has acknowledged that he could have to slow down his globe-trotting pace. In December, he will become the oldest sitting pope since the 1800s.
Pope Francis claims pornography 'weakens the soul,' calls it a vice of some priests, nuns
Pope Francis on Monday issued a harsh rebuke of watching pornography, calling it a vice of many Catholics, popes and nuns that should be avoided.
The comment was made in response to a question about today's generation of seminarians who are living in a digitally-forward world that includes social media.
According to the pope, pornography is "a vice that has so many people, so many lay people, so many lay women, and also priests and nuns."
"And I'm not just talking about criminal pornography like that of child abuse, where you see cases of abuse in vivo: this is already degeneration. But some 'normal' pornography."
He encouraged fellow Catholics to delete pornographic material from their phones so they "won't have the temptation in hand."
Pornography "weakens the soul," making room for the devil, he said.
He said social media and other parts of today's digital world are signs of progress in science that help people communicate, but noted, "It's not my world."
With this usefulness come dangers and distractions such as music that get in the way of work, Francis said.
Over the past few decades, the Vatican has warned parishioners about the spread of pornography in the media, including in books, magazines, movies, and on television.
In one May 1989 memo, the Vatican said people who watch pornography may be likely to exhibit the behavior and attitudes from porn in real life
Even "soft core" pornography can desensitize people, the Vatican said at the time.
The church charged parents, educators, young people, religious groups and other organizations to try to curb pornography's influence by telling producers, companies and public officials how they feel about the content.
Six species of rain frog discovered in Ecuador as one named in honour of slain activist
Six new species of rain frogs have been discovered in Ecuador, with one named after a murdered activist.
Scientists found the Pristimantis frogs in two national parks on the eastern slopes of the Ecuadorean Andes.
The discovery was made by Ecuadorean herpetologists Jhael Ortega, Jorge Brito and Santiago Ron, in the Llanganates and Sangay parks.
The scientists have recommended that the frogs be added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) red list of threatened species.
The new species of frogs have been named Pristimantis anaiae, tamia, glendae, kunam, resistencia and venegasi.
There are more than 570 Pristimantis species in South America, according to Ecuador’s environment ministry, mainly in Colombia and Ecuador, and many more are believed to yet be found.
One of the previously-discovered species is called Pristimantis jamescameroni after Hollywood director and environmental campaigner James Cameron. It was found in 2012 in Venezuela.
Describing how they came up with the names for the six new species, Mr Ron explained in a tweet that they had decided to name one of them resistencia – meaning resistance – in honour of activist Alba Bermeo.
Ms Bermeo was just 24 when she was shot dead in the early hours of Saturday morning after opposing gold mining in the Ecuadorean province of Azuay. She was five months pregnant, reports say.
Mr Ron also said: “During the last 10 years, Latin America has been the region most dangerous for environmental defenders with 1180 people killed, 68% of the world total. The murders were mostly perpetrated by mining companies.”
According to a report by the advocacy group Global Witness, more environmentalists were killed in Latin America than in any other region last year.
The scientists’ research on their discovery of the frogs has been published in the scientific journal PeerJ.
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